Newbie - Fukein tea advice!

[Niallram20]

Hi guys! And thanks for having me

I’m super new to bonsai, but have been fascinated for years (wasn’t even put off by accidentally murdering my ficus with anti-bac thinking it was my water spray)

So, I have what I believe to be a fukein tea. I am following most of the procedure I have found online and it seems to be happy. I just have a couple of questions as we head towards summer in the Uk!

When will I need to repot, can I wait a year based on the roots? They have only started to poke from the soil after the quite incredible recent growth!

Can I propagate this type of tree with shoots?

Does anyone know what’s going on with the soil, the moss went white, then looked to turn into a kind of black sludge and has remained that way for half of the soil! The tree doesn’t seem to mind though.

I think that’s it actually lol, but any advice that I may not know would be massively appreciated!

Thanks again for having me!! - Niall

 

[Niallram20]

Ps. It looks as if it is about to bloom! Exciting! If I was to repot it would this effect flowering?

 

[Jrmcmich]

Hopefully you get some answers. I have one of these as well so can just share what I noticed with mine. I got It last year at home improvement store in summer and kept inside near a north window (not ideal). It looked great for most of year until the heat kicked in house for winter. It continued to get worse through winter and was turning yellow (leafs). It was in bad draining soil it came with. This spring I repotted into bonsai soil and keep it outside in sun. It now is dark green and seems to be doing well. So just make sure it gets sun it needs and as far as repotting I think I did mine early but wanted it out of bad soil. Took about 3 weeks before it started to look better.

good luck and welcome

 

[Niallram20]

Thank you that’s brilliant! Climate wise it seemed to be quite happy over the winter here even in a relatively cold kitchen. I do think the soil isn’t the best but just don’t know if it has grown enough to repot!
Do you have fruiting on yours?

 

[Tele]

You could wait a year based on the roots. The soil isn´t really what we want for Bonsai and it looks like it dried out 1 time and shrunk (can´t see this good).
The roots look perfect to me without circling too much and no outside layer. This is the moment where the small pot starts inhibiting growth which is actually what we want.
Actually I would put it in a pot less deep (50%) and better soil but I might wait 1 or even 2 years.

 

[JackHammer]

Be very gentle with the roots and report in mid to late spring. That soil looks pretty bad. They don't like excess water and will die. They are pretty sensitive but one of my favorites.

 

[Niallram20]

what soil is best for this tree?

 

[Jrmcmich]

Doesn’t look like soil was as bad as what mine came in and roots do look healthy. So you could wait if you would like to. I do Agree with others the roots seemed somewhat fragile when I repotted and was careful when raking them out but I did bare root mine and washed off old soil before putting in bonsai soil. I used Tiny roots bonsai soil which is available on Amazon and other places. Drains well. They have multiple blends but I used deciduous as wasn’t wanting to buy multiple soils at that time

Tinyroots Bonsai Tree Soil - Deciduous Blend

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